Chen Gen

High Power RF Transmitters for ICRF Applications on EAST

An Ion Cyclotron Range of Frequency (ICRF) system with a radio frequency (RF) power of 4 × 1.5 MW was developed for the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). High RF power transmitters were designed as a part of the research and development (R&D) for an ICRF system with long pulse operation at megawatt levels in a frequency range of 25 MHz to 70 MHz. Studies presented in this paper cover the following parts of the high power transmitter: the three staged high power amplifier, which is composed of a 5 kW wideband solid state amplifier, a 100 kW tetrode drive stage amplifier and a 1.5 MW tetrode final stage amplifier, and the DC high voltage power supply (HVPS). Based on engineering design and static examinations, the RF transmitters were tested using a matched dummy load where an RF output power of 1.5 MW was achieved. The transmitters provide 6 MW RF power in primary phase and will reach a level up to 12 MW after a later upgrade. The transmitters performed successfully in stable operations in EAST and HT-7 devices. Up to 1.8 MW of RF power was injected into plasmas in EAST ICRF heating experiments during the 2010 autumn campaign and plasma performance was greatly improved.

Power Compensation for ICRF Heating in EAST

The source system covering a working frequency range of 24 MHz to 70 MHz with a total maximum output power of 12 MW has already been fabricated for Ion Cyclotron Range of Frequency (ICRF) heating in EAST from 2012. There are two continuous wave (CW) antennas consisting of four launching elements each fed by a separate 1.5 MW transmitter. Due to the strong mutual coupling among the launching elements, the injection power for launching elements should be imbalance to keep the k|| (parallel wave number) spectrum of the launcher symmetric for ICRF heating. Cross power induced by the mutual coupling will also induce many significant issues, such as an uncontrollable phase of currents in launching elements, high voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR), and impedance mismatching. It is necessary to develop a power compensation system for antennas to keep the power balance between the feed points. The power balance system consists of two significant parts: a decoupler and phase control. The decoupler helps to achieve ports isolation to make the differential phase controllable and compensate partly cross power. After that, the differential phase of 0 or π will keep the power balance of two feed points completely. The first power compensation system consisting of four decouplers was assembled and tested for the port B antenna at the working frequency of 35 MHz. With the application of the power compensation system, the power balance, phase feedback control, and voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) had obviously been improved in the 2015 EAST campaign.